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Vanderbilt CWS diary: Fan support "unbelievable"

By Steven Rice
8:30 a.m. CDT June 27, 2014

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Vanderbilt pitcher Steven Rice (lt) leads his teammates and fans in their "Anchor Down" chant during their NCAA Championship celebration at Vanderbilt University Thursday June 26, 2014, in Nashville, Tenn.(Photo: George Walker IV / The Tennessean)Buy Photo

It was just awesome for Vanderbilt to go out and get a national championship.

I know they've had some dark years in football and, you know, it's just been nice to see some light at the end of the tunnel with this program. I think that's why the fans have really enjoyed coming out and rooting for us.

I got to lead the "Anchor Down" chant. It was weird. I got up on the stage and thought there must not be that many people, and then I looked out there and I couldn't see any end to them all. It was just a sea of people, and I was like, "There's a lot more people here than I expected."

Dansby (Swanson) came back over after he gave his little Most Outstanding Player speech talking about how he wasn't expecting to address that many people and it was just like hard to breathe up there.

It was just unbelievable. The fan support is not what we expected at all.

My black uniform is gone, I left it in Hoover, Ala. Me and (equipment manager) Garrett (Walker) have been trying to get it back, but they just keep putting us off, so I'm thinking those guys have no idea where it is.

We woke up at 9:30 again. We ate breakfast and hung out for a little while.

We just stuck to our same routine. We had lunch, a scouting report. Just the same things we had been doing all along.

We went to field to hit batting practice at TD Ameritrade Park this time. We wanted to get more acclimated with the field. We felt like we weren't as comfortable as we should have been from the get-go the night before, and so we just wanted to get a little more acclimated.

Going through the game in my head, it was obviously just a whirlwind of emotions. You have a two-run lead and then it gets taken away from you. And you have John Norwood who comes up and just hits a 97 mph fastball out of the ballpark. We hadn't even hit a home run since May 16.

After BP we went to the game. That didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, obviously.

After the game, we knew had just one more game left to play. And I don't know, we just really had a good feeling about it.

Once we got on the bus we talked about we had been here before. We had an elimination game against Stanford and also Texas earlier in the College World Series. So we weren't uncomfortable. We've been in this situation before so we felt like we were all right.

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L to R, Vanderbilt players Chris Harvey, Rhett Wiseman and Vince Conde watch the game against Virginia during the 7th inning at the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., Tuesday, June 24, 2014.(Photo: Jae S. Lee / The Tennessean)

Monday, June 23

I woke up about 9:20 to make it down for breakfast at 9:30.

After breakfast, a lot of guys went and played video games in their rooms and kind of chilled out because we had a big break until our meetings.

At 1:30 p.m. we ate lunch and went over Virginia and our game plan for what we wanted to do against them. Basically the scouting report.

Then we had another big break, we didn't even leave for the field until around 4 p.m. So then, again, a lot of guys just got their feet up.

Now it's just to the point to where everybody just needs to get their feet up and get some rest. Because you don't really know what's going to happen and if there is going to be a Game 3.

Our bodies aren't tired, but you just want to have as much energy as you can. Most of the guys are being a little selfish with their time and trying to stay rested rather than going out with their families.

After that, we headed off to TD Ameritrade Park for batting practice. They had us on a time limit. So after that we went back to the locker room and we were probably only in the locker room for about 20 minutes. Then we headed back out to the field to take infield.

Once we were at the field it was pretty much bang, bang, bang. Everything comes close together.

Sonny Gray was there, but I wasn't even in the dugout when he was in there. I didn't even know he was there until somebody told me.

I'm sure Sonny was just kicking it and taking it easy. Knowing the kind of guy he is, he's not going to be the guy that gives us the big pump-up speech, he's going to be the guy that's trying to relax everybody and keep them loose.

It was just business as usual. We kept doing what we've been doing before the game. It's like Corbs (coach Tim Corbin) always tells us, we don't have to play great, we just have to play good. Play good, solid defense and have solid at-bats and pitch the ball well. We don't have to do anything special.

We obviously enjoyed the nine-run inning. It kind of felt like a Stanford game though, you score nine runs and it felt like it was a two-hour lead the entire time.

Another thing, too, is when you're up that much and you have so much baseball to play, you're not so worried about how many runs and hits you're giving up. It's more about preserving the lead. You throw as many arms out there as you can and eat up the innings.

Obviously, we wanted to pitch better and can pitch better, but it was just about preserving the lead last night and grinding that game out to finish it.

Adam Ravenelle finished it off with eight pitches. He's just one of those guys. Everybody else was talking about it, we can throw the ball right down the middle and it gets spanked around the ballpark, but he comes in throwing 94 mph and he throws right down the middle, but with his late life and the velocity behind the ball he's able to get guys to miss barrels.

Obviously you've got to celebrate a victory, but its just about moving on to the next game.

Like Corbs always tells us, we're just playing a tournament. However many games it doesn't matter. So when the NCAA and the city of Omaha tells us "OK, you guys have won it you can go home," then we will go home.

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Vanderbilt closer Adam Ravenelle (12) is congratulated by teammates after a 9-8 win over Virginia at the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., Monday, June 23, 2014.(Photo: Jae S. Lee / The Tennessean)

Sunday, June 22

We practiced at TD Ameritrade Park and it was pretty short. We pretty much just took batting practice. I think we were only out there for like an hour and a half. There was nothing going on there really.

We came back to the hotel and some people stayed in to watch the U.S. soccer match. I watched like five minutes and fell asleep. I woke up and we were ahead 2-1, so I fell back asleep. I woke back up and I guess Portugal had scored again.

And then you could also tell that maybe someone played not that much was going to step up, and it just so happens that Tyler Campbell steps up with two outs and the bases loaded. It was just crazy.

Just being at that game you just knew something like that was going to happen.

That type of emotion is just so crazy. You just ride it for so long. Even after we got back into the locker room like 30 minutes after it was over, everybody was just kind of staring and you could tell by the look in guys' eyes. They were wide open and staring at the wall and they were just like, 'We have no idea what's going on.'

That's what Corbs always talks about. We need to enjoy this one, but we need to get back and get some sleep so that when we get on the field the next day we can just wash this away.

He's always saying how in the emotional roller coaster that is baseball, you have to find ways to stay on an even keel.

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Vanderbilt's Tyler Campbell (2) is congratulated by teammates for hitting the game-winning RBI single against Texas at the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., Saturday, June 21, 2014.(Photo: Jae S. Lee / The Tennessean)

Friday, June 20

​It was the first time we were scheduled to play a day game in this tournament. We played Texas at 2 p.m.

We had breakfast at 9:30 a.m. and we left at 11 a.m. Usually we don't leave until like 3 p.m., so that was a little bit of a shift.

We got to ballpark at it was like 98 degrees. The weather is just a lot different during the day games than night games here. That's not an excuse, but it is a little bit hotter.

The emotions after the loss were actually pretty good. We were all pretty convinced that we were going to win that second game with UT. Because if a team can beat us twice, then they are a really good team. There aren't a lot of teams that can beat us two times in a row.

So I think we were pretty confident and we felt like we had just as good a shot as anybody, if not better.

There wasn't anyone panicking or anything like that. If you would have told use we had nine innings to play to get in the national championship and we were going to have Carson Fulmer on the mound and pretty much a fresh bullpen -- we felt pretty good about it actually.

I sleep fine the night before a game like this because I'm just there for the moral support. It's tough. I know Tyler Campbell was talking about how he is riding these emotional highs and that he sleeps, but it feels like he's not sleeping that much.

For guys that know they are throwing the next day, it's almost about keeping your emotions in check and making sure you don't make too much out of the situation I think. I think we do that pretty well.

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L to R, Vanderbilt players Carson Fulmer, Tyler Beede, Jason Delay and Karl Ellison watch front he dugout at the end of the ninth inning against Texas at the College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., Friday, June 20, 2014. Vanderbilt lost 4-0.(Photo: Jae S. Lee / The Tennessean)

Thursday, June 19 We did the whole breakfast routine like we had been doing, and then we went to practice at Bellevue again.

All of the other teams have been playing there, so by the time we got there the outfield has been pretty beat up. So of course all the outfielders were talking about that.

After that, we to Piccolo's, which is like a famous steakhouse here in Omaha that Warren Buffett likes to go to. It was good, we all got like steaks and chicken parms, dessert, ham and beans soup. All of the coaches' families and all of us were there together. It was pretty cool.

[NOTE: This was the night the team found out that Xavier Turner would not be eligible to play for the remainder of the series, but Rice has decided to keep those moments private.]

It was your typical 9:30 breakfast this morning, then we left for practice at Creighton that started at noon.

We had that noon practice and were there for a little while. We did a little pitcher vs. hitter competition at the end and Kyle Smith ended it with a home run.

The AstroTurf was like 115,000 degrees. I mean, we knew it was going to be hot, but after that practice we were all pretty tired. It drained us.

Right after that we ended up going back to the hotels to shower really quick before we went back up to Offutt Air Force Base.

We hung out up there for a while again.

This time they showed us some of their MIA and Prisoner of War stuff. They were showing us how they dig up remains of veterans. They mainly do World War II veterans, but they were showing us how they dig up the bones and try to distinguish whether or not it was a U.S. military member and then try to tell the families. That was pretty cool, telling us the process they go through to figure that out.

Then, they gave us the history run down of how they built these bombers used in World War II. It was actually the bomber that was used to drop the nuclear bombs built here. That was cool. They gave us these little pieces of wood chips from the original floor that was put down.

Then they gave us a little presentation on the history of the hangar. And after that, we worked our way over to the on-base fire house. They were showing us their new trucks that had these, like basically, water cannons. And they let us shoot them off the trucks. Nobody stood in front of the water cannons.

They talked about letting us come back and do flight simulators and stuff like that, but we don't know if we'll be back. It kind of depends on how everybody's bodies are feeling. If we're tired, we probably won't. But if we have a little extra time or something we might get to go over there.

We got back around six, and a lot of people slept until the Texas-UC Irvine game. We do a lot of sleeping. If we have some down time, we like to get our rest.

Some people went to the game, some people just stayed in their hotel room and watched it. Some people went out to dinner with their families. We already had our team event, so everybody just kind of did their own thing for a little while.

Tuesday, June 17

This was our off day.

We had a 10:30 breakfast, and then we all kind of hung out for a little bit at the hotel.

We went from there to do a team (weight) lift at Creighton. And afterward they gave us a little tour of all of their new basketball stuff.

They just got a brand new locker room, weight rooms and stuff like that. So they were super excited to show it off.

After that, we pretty much had the whole day off.

There was a group of like 10 of us that went to the Omaha Zoo. I would recommend it for anybody that's here. It's pretty awesome.

There was some girl sitting in the window well by the gorilla station, and apparently the gorilla went on a dead sprint over to the glass. She wasn't paying attention, and he started hammering on the glass. She sort of freaked out.

That was pretty cool.

We were really disappointed because the cheetahs were just like laying in the grass. Xavier (Turner) really wanted to see the lions and cheetahs, but they were really hard to see because they were just chilling in the shade.

But it was still fun. The aquarium was pretty good, but I think they are really known for their cats.

They have a sweet indoor jungle with bats flying around. There were hippos and monkeys all in this one area. You could walk right through it.

Some of the other guys just hung around the hotel, and then other guys went to the stadium and watched the games. It was all just about preference and what you wanted to do. We were free. Some people spent time with their families if they were still here.

It was about 50/50 on families that went versus the ones that stayed. I know that a lot of the ones that went home are planning to come back after Friday.

My mom's boss asked her why she was back at work. He just expected her to stay out here the whole time, so when she got to work he was like 'Why are you here?'

My parents are heading back out on Monday if we make it that far.

A lot of us tried to catch at least the back end of that TCU-Virginia game (that went 15 innings), but we had curfew so we had to get back before it was over.

Monday, June 16

This game day was a lot like the first.

We had breakfast at 9:30, then came back to the rooms to rest and had a 1:00 meeting.

We had lunch catered in, had pasta and things like that.

Then, we left for Bellevue East High School to hit batting practice.

From there we went to the field and did more of the same from Saturday, we hung out in the locker room and then went to play ball.

We went down for breakfast at 10:30 - Corbs (coach Tim Corbin) let us sleep in today. We had to stay up a little bit longer (after Saturday's game), so he gave us a little longer to get down there. That was nice.

After breakfast we had a 12 p.m. meeting with Oakley. So you can just imagine what 27 guys all trying to get new Oakleys are like. It was a circus.

Then we had practice practice out in Bellevue. It was a nice little field. We basically took BP the whole time.

After practice we went out to the Offutt Air Force Base. Our host group for the trip is the Offutt Air Force.

Once we got there we got our clearance so that we could be there, then we did a bus tour around the whole base. They showed us all the planes and what not.

Then we stopped at this high-security area and they actually let us on the doomsday plane for the president. That's one of those things that you usually can't ever tour it.

They have two of them, one is in maintenance while the other is in the air. But it just so happened to work out to where that one was on the base and they let us tour it.

There were certain sections (of the plane) where you couldn't take pictures, so most of us were just too scared to ever try to take pictures while we were in there. So we just walked around and took it in instead.

It was really cool. You would expect it to be like some luxury plane, but it's not like that at all. That plane is strictly for operations. It had a lot of communications stuff, like a five-mile copper wire that they hang off the tail for an antenna so that they can communicate with submarines underneath the water and planes many miles away.

We got to see a bunch of their guns and stuff like that, which was cool. The Air Force base wanted me to tell everybody that the guns some of our guys were pictured handling were unarmed and safe in a controlled environment.

Tyler Campbell and Ben Bowden signed waivers to get Tased. It was interesting. Tyler Campbell said it was the worst pain he has ever experienced in his life. He said he would have been so mad at himself if he wouldn't have done it, but at the same time the pain was so unreal that he said he would never do it again. He said there was not an amount of money that you could pay him to do that again.

They asked if there were going to be any effects (before being Tased) and the guy was like, "Right after they are done it might feel like they ran three miles but the next day they won't even know."

When the tour was over, we had dinner at the ball room on base. There were fans there, so we all split up and sat like two players at a table. There were probably 20-30 tables set up. Some of them were families from the base and some of them were there because they had family that served at Offutt. They had some high-ranking members there that gave an opening speech, which was cool.

We had chicken steak, baked beans, corn, cornbread and huge brownies and ice cream for dessert. Then we did like a 10-minute autograph signing afterward.

We were there from 4-8, so after that we came back to the hotel.

Then I left with probably some guys (Carson Fulmer, Walker Buehler, Ben Bowden, T.J. Pecoraro) and got to meet up and spend some time with my dad. I was able to give him his Father's Day gift, so that was nice.

After that they gave me a lift back to the hotel and I went straight to sleep.

Saturday, June 14

At 9:30 we went down for breakfast. Everybody made it to breakfast again today.

Me, Adam Ravenelle, T.J. Pecoraro, Jared Miller and Kyle Smith all sat down there eating breakfast talking about girlfriends and ex-girlfriends and that kind of thing for like an hour and a half.

Then we went upstairs for our 11 a.m. team meeting about Louisville. It was the same stuff we had already been over, but that's usually what we do. We will look at a team twice to reinforce what we have already been told.

After the meeting we were free to go eat lunch with our families if we wanted to.

We left the hotel at about 3:40. We had a sendoff that was pretty cool. There were a lot of people outside and they were playing some music and just cheering us on before we got on the bus.

We left at 3:50 for BP at Creighton. The wind was actually blowing out at Creighton this time, so Kyle Smith hit like six bombs. Everybody was just trying to lift the ball because the last time we hit BP there the wind was blowing in so bad that we didn't hit any home runs there.

After BP we got back on the bus and they took us to TD (Ameritrade Park).

They put us in our holding room. We were watching Italy and England (World Cup) on TV. They scored like three goals while were in there, so of course everybody on the team ends up going nuts every time somebody scores a goal. The people outside that were working (security) were like, 'What's going on in there?'

The game was crazy. It was not like you were at another college field like Ole Miss or Mississippi State. It's not a real hostile environment, just a lot of people there to watch the games and enjoy watching it.

There were also some other differences. You could almost take the crowd out of it because they liked to do their own things that were just weird like doing the wave for an hour.

Carson Fulmer (the next morning) was like 'Dude, I know I'm not supposed to notice the wave but my gosh. I was waiting for them to stop. Can they not do this right now?' He pitched really well though, so good for him.

After the fifth inning I went down to the bullpen, but I was in the dugout the entire time before that.

We went back to the locker room after the win. They were playing the radio replays over the speakers of our game.

Some people had their interviews and what not. The rest of us just got on the bus and ate our sandwiches while we were waiting for them to get back. I swear it took a long time.

That's our thing. When you're on this team and you do something that lands you an interview at the press conference, it automatically turns into 'This is your fault that we're having to stay here. You had a good game, but now you're making us have to wait around.'

It's a joke. We're not serious, but it always happens.

That was the longest game in TD Ameritrade history. I think they tried to pick off Vince Conde like 16 times. For no reason.

We were all pretty much over being awake at that point, so we were glad to get back to the hotel and call it a night.

Friday, June 13

We all woke up at 8:30 for breakfast. Everybody made it this time.

After breakfast we came up to the rooms and got dressed to go practice at TD Ameritrade Park.

Right before practice we took a team picture in front of the statue. I actually forgot my belt, so I was struggling around trying to find one. Finally me and (equipment manager) Garrett (Walker) found one under the bus, and then me and him were sprinting to the picture because at this point we were really late. So here I am sprinting, trying to put a belt on. Even when I was sitting down for the picture, I was still trying to get the belt on. That was really good.

Some of the guys got interviewed by ESPN and stuff like that. The other guys kind of held out in the holding room, which is basically like our locker room, and waited.

Once we got in TD, we had our BP and the pitchers threw.

Kyle Smith ended up hitting a ball out at BP today, so he made up for not hitting one out at Creighton yesterday.

At the end, we let all the pitchers get on top of the mound and throw pitches to the catcher until they threw a strike so that everyone would be able to touch the mound. It took me two throws.

Then, we had a meeting with the FBI about gambling and sports wagering. They basically told us that we can't talk to bookies and not to fix our games. Yada, yada, yada. It was pretty interesting though.

After the FBI we ended up doing autographs. Our block for autographs was an hour long, but from what somebody else told me we were the only team that actually did all of the autographs for everybody that wanted one. We were there for about an hour and 15 minutes, but we got everybody in.

I think that's probably why we have a good fan base here, because we take the extra time to do stuff like that. It is completely worth it.

We met with EvoShield at 3:30. They are company that makes hitting guards, wrist bands, arm sleeves. But then we found out that we weren't able to wear any of it because we don't have a contract with them. Guys were upset. It was pretty cool stuff. It was camo and it said 'Omaha' on it.

Next, we had a team meeting about Louisville to kind of go over what they are about and how we're going to play defensively. Basically, a scout meeting.

Then we headed over to the field to have our team dinner with all of the other teams. We had barbeque ribs, pork, fruit, potatoes-- your typical barbeque.

After that we got to go to FanFest, which was pretty cool. It's basically where all the fans hang out just outside the stadium right before opening ceremonies. We were just walking around there and seeing everybody. We probably took a million pictures with people. They just come up to you and are like 'Hey, can I get a picture?'

If you're anywhere from 14 to 16 years old, that place must be awesome because there are just all of these baseball players walking around, a bunch of shops and little things to do. It was pretty neat.

After that we were in this tunnel. All of the teams were in the same tunnel waiting to go onto the field (for opening ceremonies). We were basically like caged animals just hanging out. We were in there for like 30 minutes. It took so long. I didn't know what was going on.

Finally, we got announced and got to come onto the field. The walk in was awesome.

(Former Stanford pitcher) Kyle Peterson spoke at opening ceremonies, along with the mayor of Omaha. Tyler Ferguson got mentioned for having the highest GPA on the team.

There were Army paratroopers that dropped into the stadium. There were eight of them and they each had one of the school's flags. Our guy landed on two feet and didn't fall, so that was good. We didn't want him to fall -- that's just bad karma.

The fireworks at the end were very cool.

After it was over, we all came back to the hotel and basically just crashed because it was a long day. It was very similar to our trip here (Wednesday) with the way we felt, so we all just came back here after the opening ceremonies and called it a night.

Thursday, June 12

I woke up this morning to a group text from Corbs (Coach Tim Corbin) saying that I needed to come down and eat breakfast right away because it was really good. Some people got up, other people didn't.

After breakfast we reconvened and met with our Nike representative Ken Thompson around noon. That's when we got our Nike gift bags. I don't think anyone shut their mouth for the whole 20 minutes that we were there. Everyone was really excited to get the stuff. They gave us shirts, hats, batting gloves, backpacks and these really nice pullovers that everybody fell in love with. They hooked us up. We posted like a million Twitter and Instagram pictures of all that we got.

After that we headed to the field for practice at Creighton. Creighton was good. I guess they don't use the field anymore so they don't want to put anymore money into it. It had the old school Astroturf kind of stuff, so nobody wanted to be diving around and blow their kneecaps out or turf burn or anything.

It was the first ballpark of the year that was able to hold Kyle Smith's BP. He didn't hit one out for the first time all year. The wind was blowing in from left, so he wasn't able to put one out today.

Then we came back to the hotel any everyone kind of vegged out for a while. Some of us went to the market to eat lunch.

We went to dinner at Omaha Prime. It was really good. All the guys had steaks, except for (Adam) Ravenelle, he was the only guy that got duck. He said it tasted like chicken on steroids. John Norwood couldn't decide what kind of steak he wanted and he asked about every single one on the menu, and then he had them go through every single option of how it should be cooked. Until Rav told him he should get it medium and he decided to go with that.

Corbs doesn't have to give us a lock down time, we're all pretty good about getting in. Usually its anywhere from 11 to 12, but honestly after a day like this everyone is ready to call it a day around 10:30.

Wednesday, June 11

As soon as we landed, everyone was really excited to get our travelling suits off. But we went to the ballpark first before we did anything.

We got to see where we would be playing, what the view looks like from the dugout, so that was cool. We toured the press box, the locker rooms and everything like that. And we were still in our suits.

We took pictures by the iconic statue. There were some guys that tried to recreate the moment (in pictures). That was cool, it was kind of like the holy grail of baseball. When you go to Omaha, that's the very first thing you want to do is see the statue.

Finally, we got back to the hotel and I think the first thing everybody did was strip our suits off and change into something comfy.

Then we went and ate pizza with our host families. They were really nice. They brought us pizza, so and it was all really good. I think that's a direct correlation to the type of people they are.